Investigating the “Impossible” About 40 years ago, a group of microbiologists, behavioral scientists, and medical doctors in laboratories from UCLA to Russia proposed, based on their carefully conducted, independent studies, a completely heretical idea: that the brain, immune, and hormonal systems were connected – and that emotions had a major influence on the body.

They were completely laughed at by the scientific and medical community. Some were denied tenure. They were sometimes shut out of university laboratories for their “psychological nonsense.”

Nevertheless, they persisted with the idea, and with their tenacity and vision, as well as years of careful research in the laboratory, founded the field that we now know as psychoneuroimmunology, or PNI.

Fortunately for us, these scientists persisted – and paved a path that has had tremendous impact on our understanding of health and medicine. Forty years later, the fact that the nervous system, the immune system, and the endocrine system are connected is now a given, and nearly every day we are reading about exciting developments in these fields, such as the contributions of the vagus nerve in immune and brain communication, and the recent paper in Nature reporting the existence of functional lymphatic vessels in the brain — something that again, was thought to be impossible. We’ve learned about the power of our own emotional states on our immunity — and how our mental state plays a role in certain disease risks — in some cases, even helping predict how long we live.

Hacking the Body Electric In parallel with these advances in PNI, we are seeing a rise in bioelectromagnetic medicine — including brain stimulation. These new devices – based on the mapping of the body’s responses to magnetic and electrical stimulation – are being heralded as the “Future of Medicine” — and some show tremendous promise in helping forward better treatment of certain diseases.

Unfortunately, the devices that could mitigate diseases, can also serve to disempower us, if used improperly. The fervor for these devices doesn’t just stop at finding new solutions for cancer or Alzheimer’s disease — corporate interests are pushing the development of devices down to “fixing” our mood and even our eating patterns. Feeling sad or out of sorts, or need to obliterate that hunger craving? No problem, a brain zap can fix that. There are plenty of folks ready to sell you such devices, whether or not they actually are based on sound scientific evidence. Some people are also creating DIY brain stimulation devices for home use to treat depression and enhance attention, which is not safe.

Is the “New Medicine” really based on Ancient Medicine? While industry focuses on devices that can be sold as the next new medicine, some scientists have been uncovering the effects of ancient medicine – mind-body-spirit practices such as yoga, meditation, tai-chi and even energy healing on psychological, neural, immune, and endocrine outcomes for patients including those with PTSD, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.

The interesting thing is that the health impact of these practices, which have been part of global cultures for thousands of years, were mapped out long ago by the sages that had discovered and shared them. The described “mechanism of action” circulated around the understanding that these are spiritual practices that have a strong influence on the subtle energy system (part of what we now call in the West the “Biofield”), and through refining ourselves spiritually, positive shifts occur in our emotional, mental and physical well-being.

Sadly, because of the emphasis on materialism in science and medicine, “spirit” is still considered a dirty word and is generally taboo for research and discussion. The study of “biofield” is not so far behind in the ridicule line, despite the basic science and clinical research demonstrating effects of the biofield on health, as is now being shown with bioelectronic medicine. In fact, industry is now in a race to begin mapping out the electromagnetic readouts of the body — one aspect of the biofield — but only to develop devices that can be bought and sold for mitigating disease symptoms.

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Look within. If you are having problems with meditation or simply want to go deeper I have a 15 minute composition posted on YouTube that may help this. One needs headphones and listen to the entire recording. Try it for a few days and feel the difference. Simply Google Spirit of the Wind 10 Good health and prosperity and thank you for listening.

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